Recent experience with 7 patients, as well as a review of the literature, indicate that partial nephrectomy provides satisfactory treatment of solitary and bilateral renal adenocarcinomas. Patient survival seems to be dependent on the adequacy of tumour resection and not on the fate of the contralateral kidney. Total nephrectomy, dialysis and subsequent transplantation are viable alternatives when it is technically not possible to preserve adequate renal parenchyma.